Undoubtedly my favourite Brontë story, and amongst the best adaptations of period drama you could ever wish to see. Joan Fontaine is superb in the title role, a girl forced into a brutal orphanage following the death of her father. After many years of abuse at the hands of the monstrous "Brocklehurst" (Henry Daniell) she finds a post as a governess to the daughter of the reclusive Edward Rochester (Orson Welles) at his remote, gothic Thornfield Hall. After an initially rocky start with her employer, things begin to thaw between them but is any of it as it seems...? Robert Stevenson has created a wonderfully evocative glimpse at Victorian Britain, and with Charlotte Brontë's superb eye not just for the detail of the story, but for a subtle and nuanced social commentary of a time when - even amongst the most civilised in society - human beings had little, or no value. The film takes it's time to develop the characters, the locations - the use of light, shadow and another striking score from Bernard Hermann all augment the two leading performances offering us a gripping adaptation of a strong, characterful book. I always find that colour is an inherent enemy of stories like this - monochrome is always king, and never more so than here...
